The court is returning to the bench this morning after its usual four-week winter recess. The recess, marked by noteworthy “shadow docket” actions on the death penalty, abortion rights and other matters, may have offered more news than the relatively sleepy February sitting.
Today, though, the press section is filling up, and it is not because there is a groundswell of interest in today’s lone case for argument – a thorny patent dispute between a private business and the U.S. Postal Service over... Tags: New York, Hollywood, Featured, Law, Congress, Abc, California, Washington, Alabama, Los Angeles, Syria, Cnn, Commerce, Oscar, Npr, Ross

The role of Supreme Court swing vote had been filled by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who sided with its liberal bloc on divisive issues including abortion and gay rights before retiring last July. Following Republican President Donald Trump's appointment in the past two years of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who replaced Kennedy, and Justice Neil Gorsuch, Roberts now appears to be the most centrist of the five conservative justices who make up the court's majority. Tags: Science, Supreme Court, Donald Trump, Kennedy, U S Supreme Court, Roberts, Anthony Kennedy, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch Roberts

A divided U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday stopped a Louisiana law imposing strict regulations on abortion clinics from going into effect in its first major test on abortion since the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy last summer. The court on a 5-4 vote granted an emergency application by Shreveport-based abortion provider Hope Medical Group for Women to block the Republican-backed law from going into effect while litigation continues. The four liberal justices were joined by conservative C... Tags: Science, Supreme Court, Louisiana, Kennedy, U S Supreme Court, John Roberts, Roberts, Shreveport, Anthony Kennedy, Hope Medical Group

President Donald Trump’s call for a ban on late-term abortions is unlikely to prevail in Congress, but Republican legislators in several states are pushing ahead with their own tough anti-abortion bills that they hope can pass muster with the Supreme Court.
Two bills proposing to outlaw abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, advanced out of House and Senate committees in the Mississippi Legislature this week, with GOP Gov. Phil Bryant pledging to... Tags: New York, Texas, News, Mississippi, Supreme Court, Congress, Senate, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana, Gop, North Dakota, Tennessee, House, New York Times, Iowa

Bolstered by Trump's appointment of two conservative justices, the nine-member court could soon begin to pare back abortion rights, starting with a major case from Louisiana that is one of several similar pending appeals. The addition of Trump appointees Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch could alter the conservative-majority court's approach to abortion. Kavanaugh replaced Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who backed abortion rights in key rulings in 1992 and 2016. Tags: Science, Supreme Court, Congress, Louisiana, Trump, Anthony Kennedy, Kavanaugh, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch

Derek Muller is an associate professor of law at the Pepperdine University School of Law.
“In a democratic society like ours, relief must come through an aroused popular conscience that sears the conscience of the people’s representatives.” So wrote Justice Felix Frankfurter in his dissenting opinion in Baker v. Carr in 1962.
It was, of course, a dissent. A majority of the Supreme Court in short order reorganized state legislatures according to its own understanding of fair representation — that... Tags: Utah, Featured, Maryland, Supreme Court, Law, Congress, California, Massachusetts, Indiana, Arizona, Davis, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Baker, Carr, Democratic

In 2016, a closely divided Supreme Court delivered a ringing victory to abortion rights supporters by striking down a Texas abortion access law. Justice Anthony Kennedy, siding with the liberals on the bench, cast the critical 5-3 vote holding that the law constituted an undue burden on a woman's right to seek an abortion. Tags: Texas, Supreme Court, Cnn, Trump, Anthony Kennedy

In 2016, a closely divided Supreme Court delivered a ringing victory to abortion rights supporters by striking down a Texas abortion access law. Justice Anthony Kennedy, siding with the liberals on the bench, cast the critical 5-3 vote holding that the law constituted an undue burden on a woman's right to seek an abortion. Tags: Texas, News, Supreme Court, Stories, Trump, Anthony Kennedy

The following is a series of questions posed by Ronald Collins to Neal Devins and Lawrence Baum on the occasion of the publication of their book “The Company They Keep: How Partisan Divisions Came to the Supreme Court” (Oxford University Press, 2019, 272 pp., cloth: $29.95).
Neal Devins is the Sandra Day O’Connor Professor of Law at the College of William and Mary. Lawrence Baum is an emeritus professor of political science at Ohio State University.
Welcome, Neal and Lawrence, and thank you fo... Tags: Featured, Supreme Court, Law, Obama, Congress, White House, Book Reviews, Ronald Reagan, Arizona, William, Republican, Kerry, Donald Trump, Miranda, Fdr, East Bay